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Tech News Blog
7.08.05
Florida to War Drivers: Just Say No
War drivers in Florida might want to find a new hobby now that the state has arrested a man for allegedly accessing someone’s wireless network, a felony violation in Florida according to a report from PC World. If you haven’t yet, activate your wireless router’s protection and you might consider disconnecting the router when you aren’t using it. For more on this subject surf to CNET:
FAQ: Wi-Fi mooching and the law
Is it legal to use another's network without asking? Is it OK to share your own network? It's not always clear. [CNET News.com]

Trojan Attacks on Rise
According to CNET, an Internet security watchdog has detected a significant increase in Trojan attacks. The Trojans are delivered via email and include attachments named: ‘Downloader.abc’ and ‘Downloader.xz’, sans quotation marks. If you open the attachment you will open a backdoor for a cracker, so just say NO to attachments.

Remove Your Annoyance
If you have an annoyance with your computer, let me help solve the issue. Please include as much information as possible regarding the situation, including what operating system you are using and when you last updated, anything you might have installed prior to the start of the problem, if you are logged on as the administrator when the issue occurs and any other information think might be even remotely related. It really helps to include your email address in the event that I need more background information to solve your problem, but you can submit your question anonymously to: contactus@multipleplatforms.com/.

Open Source Updates
Open source systems have a flaw in their zlib component and most of the following updates and those listed yesterday address this problem according to CNET. Secunia released the following bulletins for open source users: Debian (1, 2, 3, 4), Red Hat, OpenBSD, Conectiva, Mandriva, SuSE, and Fedora.

Tip of the Day From Multiple Platforms.com: Gmail account
I still have 25 more Gmail (see below for definition) invitations to share with readers of Multiple Platforms.com and if you would like a Gmail account all you need to do is send me an email to contactus@multipleplatforms.com/ and include the phrase: I want a Gmail account. I will extend an invitation to next 25 emails I receive.

What is Gmail?
This definition has been highlighted previously, but to clarify what Gmail is for new visitors to Multiple Platforms.com we look to Wikipedia: “Gmail is a free webmail service, currently in beta testing, offered by Google, Inc.
For more than a year after Gmail's initial release on March 31, 2004, access to the service was restricted to those who had received an invitation token from an existing account holder.
While Gmail is not entirely open to the general public yet, most Gmail users have many invites to spare, as Google has lately been giving quite a few of these out. Gmail invites are also given away at random through Google's home page.
The service is notable for providing over 2.3 gigabytes of storage space (increased from the original limit of 1.0 gigabyte). This change was announced on April Fool's Day 2005, and was made for the one-year anniversary of Gmail. The announcement was accompanied by a statement that Google would continue to increase storage until they reached the theoretical limit (infinity gigabytes) then give each user one more. All Google will say about this now is that it will keep increasing by the second as long as they have enough space on their servers. Gmail makes intensive use of modern browser features such as JavaScript and keyboard access keys, allowing for a richer user experience, while retaining the benefits of a web application (most importantly, immediate availability of the service on any computer with a supported browser). Gmail also offers 'Basic HTML view' to allow users to access the Gmail messages from almost any computer running almost any web browser, even old ones (not just Internet Explorer 5.5+, Mozilla Application Suite, and Safari).”